Clean-up effort praised
A MONUMENTAL effort was put in over the past few days to get the Enniscorthy District back up and running following the worst snow in over 35 years.
District Manager Liz Hore said that council staff faced significant challenges in clearing the snow and attempting to reconnect the main towns with rural areas.
‘The big challenges were the level of drifts we were dealing with,’ she said. ‘This was significant in outer-lying areas such as Oulart, Monageer, the Ballagh and Bunclody. At this stage, most roads are now passable. Priority was given to national routes, then regional routes and we are working through access routes to villages and minor roads at the moment. We would advise people to still take extreme caution while driving as there is still a lot of snow mounded on either side of the roads.’
In relation to water and power, Ms Hore says that Enniscorthy escaped lighter than Wexford and areas further south, but advised that people still try to conserve water as much as possible. While there had been a major issue with Ferns, this has since been rectified and water tankers have been deployed to worst affected areas.
Speaking from County Hall, the District Manager said that the council call centre is still operational and they had screened over 1,000 calls in recent days. She said that Enniscorthy Municipal Offices will re-open on Tuesday morning and that work was currently being done to clear pathways to schools to give them the option of re-opening as soon as possible. She added that a total of 60 army personnel from the defence forces would be assigned to assist efforts to clear footpaths and respond to snow issues in both Enniscorthy and Bunclody from today (Tuesday). The troops, she said, would be divided equally among both towns.
On behalf of the council, Ms Hore also wished to thank all of the council staff, contractors and local farmers who have been a major help in terms of clearing roads across the District, particularly in places such as Bunclody where significant progress had been made in the preceding 24 hours.
She also thanked people who were out with shovels clearing their estates and helping out their neighbours and said that the level of community spirit which has been on display across the district over the past few days has been truly heartening.